Tips to help you help Wikipedia reflect a richer world
In a campus visit, Kevin Payravi ’17 and Mia Cariello ’21, ’23 MA explained the web tool’s limitations and shared how to build up its content.
(Illustration by Dante Terzigni)
Software engineer Kevin Payravi ’17 began editing Wikipedia articles at age 13 — hence his username, SuperHamster.
He went on to found Ohio Wikimedians, a user group devoted to the upkeep and promotion of Wikipedia, and later joined the board of Wikimedia DC. (Side note: Wikimedians contribute to any of Wikimedia’s 22 projects, which include Wikipedia.)
Spring semester, he and graduate student Mia Cariello ’21, ’23 MA, Wikimedia coordinator for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, led a Wiki editing workshop for Ohio State’s Humanities Institute and Center for Ethnic Studies. Its emphasis was filling Wikipedia’s knowledge and perspective gaps.
Beyond explaining how to edit Wikipedia, Payravi and Cariello shed light on disparities in Wikipedia coverage. For instance, the Northern Hemisphere is disproportionately represented, and less than 20% of biographies in English are about women. Workshop students made 79 edits across 18 articles, including eight new entries they drafted. Here are some of their takeaways.
Know the rules
Articles must be neutral, citing verifiable published information rather than the editor’s personal research. Assume others are operating in good faith. Avoid editing articles about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers and other topics that may raise conflict of interest concerns.
Take care with photos
Images added to articles must be your own original work, public domain, freely licensed for commercial use or subject to Wikipedia’s “non-free content” policy (a fair use standard stricter than U.S. copyright law). The database Wikimedia Commons contains more than 92 million image, sound and video files that can be added to Wiki articles.
Share your expertise
Wikipedians often edit together at online or in-person meetups. Initiatives such as AfroCrowd and Black Lunch Table work to preserve Black culture and history on Wikipedia. WikiProject groups such as Women in Red and WikiProject Asian Americans work against systemic bias and establish norms and standards.
Use the tools
Every article has an associated Talk page, accessible under the headline, where you can discuss the article’s content, suggest changes or explain your own edits. Want to help but don’t know where to start? Citation Hunt is a tool to dig up unsourced claims on Wikipedia, while WikiShootMe locates articles missing a photo. Every edit helps.
